Scholarly writing about Bruckner typically follows certain well-worn paths; in particular, it tends to grant great emphasis to the notorious editorial problems that attend this composer's works. This book does undoubtedly devote more attention to text-critical concerns than do most others in the Handbook series, partly because the textual history of the Eighth Symphony is complex and important, and partly because modern understanding of it is, as I hope to show, somewhat mistaken. Editorial issues can, if approached with a critical spirit, open out into regions of broader significance, such as hermeneutics, reception history, and performance practice; yet I believe that the “Bruckner Problem” is ordinarily framed too simplistically, and that a reductive concern with textual authenticity has come to loom too large in the imagination of most Brucknerians. For these reasons some parts of this book, notably Chapters 3 and 4, are deliberately unburdened by text-critical concerns.

Books that are apt for teaching advanced courses on late nineteenth-century music are not thick on the ground. I have borne this in mind while writing this volume, and will be gratified if it finds use in the class-room. I have tried to provide enough variety amongst the chapters to offer some small methodological range (from critical analysis and reception history, to textual history, with even a hint of the history of ideas in the chapter on the sublime) for an enterprising teacher to build upon.

I owe great thanks to my wife Paula for her staunch support and help, and for her patience in hearing great gusts of and about the Eighth Symphony.